A beverage dispensing system visibly offering rapid production of complex drinks in the presence of intended purchasers and visibly verifying the source of important ingredients of the beverage.
When one purchases a drink based on a simple ingredient such as a soda, there is no problem. These drinks are inexpensive, and their differences are readily recognized by their consumers. They recognize whether the drink is a cola or a ginger ale, and there is no appreciable cost differential between various ones of the brands. In fact, they generally are constituted in a proportioning nozzle at the base in which water (carbonated or not) in consumed with a syrup.
This constituted ingredient is often the subject of an order for a non-alcoholic drink. In busy bars and elsewhere, there is almost no interest in the details of what this xe2x80x9cmixerxe2x80x9d is. For well drinks the bartender simply adds the alcoholic liquor to it, and that is the end of it.
Depending on the class of the bar or restaurant, and of the cost of the alcoholic drink, alcoholic liquors of distinction or of higher cost are generally dispensed directly from its own bottle, and depending on its cost also in full view of the customer who sees the label on the bottle while the liquor is poured. For the price of such liquors, such a time-consuming gesture is expected.
However, there are premium liquors that are less expensive than ultra-rated liquors but better than xe2x80x9cwellxe2x80x9d brands, that command much larger prices in mixed drinks. Customers often prefer these mid-range liquors. However, large installations cannot afford the labor costs and overhead of such individual presentations as are requested for very costly liquors. Especially in lively environments, there is little time for this type of attraction or presentation, whatever the price.
Here, both the house and the customer have a problem, especially when a premium beverage is to be used in a complicated mixed drink, and in a busy bar. Examples of such drinks are the Margarita, the Mai Tai, the various fizzes, and Cosmopolitans. In very busy houses, such drinks can not be economically provided when a large number of them must be individually prepared. A single bartender cannot make enough of them at once, nor can he make one or a few of them at the same time when he must also include in the order a few simpler drinks such as bourbon on the rocks, and glasses of wine. Accordingly, servers are discouraged from suggesting orders which include these drinks. A source of very profitable business is often lost, along with a customer""s goodwill.
The solution to this problem in large-enough scale operations is to utilize concentrates for the more popular complicated beverages. Here it is not meant to include the common mixing nozzle that combines syrups or elixirs for carbonated or non-carbonated water to make a simple drink. The field of this invention involves the pre-preparation of a substantial number of orders of complex beverages, ready to be dispensed in an icy, slushy condition.
Pre-mixes for this purpose are known, for example to prepare concentrates without liquor. In these, water, and flavoring ingredients are mixed together in a mixing chamber where the resulting icy mixture is continuously recirculated and made available to be dispensed. An example of such a dispenser is shown in Gorski et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,035, Issued Nov. 21, 2000. Here there is a continual recirculation of a continuously maintained mixture of ingredients.
Such drinks ultimately can include any kind or class of constituent-cheap vodka, or instead premium-level ingredients such as very expensive vodkas, tequilas or bourbons. A person who wants to obtain a drink and who expects to pay for, and more importantly to receive, a premium ingredient, is left to wonder what he really will receive in a busy house.
So there is the quandary. It is possible for the house to proclaim that its drinks contain only certain types of liquors by name. This can be done by identifying on a sign or menu the well brands used by the house. But what about the customer? He is less impressed by institutional signage than by what he gets in that one drink, and yet he doesn""t know.
And what about the house? At a single station, the bartender needs to have at hand a quick source for many copies of a complicated drink, without the fuss of identifying to a purchaser (who may be far down the bar) what actually is being poured from a bottle.
It is the object of this invention to advertise and fulfill the needs of both the house and its customers when a customer orders a complex beverage with a specified (not necessarily costly) component, and to assure the customer that is what he will receive. This also provides the advantage of advertising the availability of the beverage with the specific ingredient.
A dispensing system according to this invention includes a source of a first ingredient, for example an identified liquor, a source of a second ingredient, for example a concentrate of other ingredients, and a mixer adapted to receive, chill, and circulate the combination in a slushy or icy state. It further includes a nozzle to draw the drink from the mixer for presentation to the customer.
According to a feature of this invention, the source of the first ingredient (usually the liquor) is placed independently and prominently in plain view. An indicia of activation or supply of this ingredient is provided adjacent to said source indicative of withdrawal of the first ingredient from the source. The nozzle and the indicia are so disposed, arranged, and activated that when the drink is withdrawn the indicia is energized, thereby to inform the customer that the ingredient for his drink comes from that source.
According to a preferred but optional feature of the invention, the system is arranged such that an identical amount of the ingredient is restored to the mixer, to replace the withdrawn liquid, thereby maintaining the system in readiness.